With Isaac's winds subsiding, rescue copters take to the skies

Military rescue helicopters that played a vital role in the wake of Hurricane Katrina seven years ago, are aloft today, since Hurricane Isaac's harsh winds subsided. The Louisiana National Guard and the Coast Guard said they'd have helicopters up, including for search and rescue missions expected to focus in part on Laplace. An air crew from Coast Guard Air...

Military rescue helicopters that played a vital role in the wake of Hurricane Katrina seven years ago, are aloft today, since Hurricane Isaac's harsh winds subsided. The Louisiana National Guard and the Coast Guard said they'd have helicopters up, including for search and rescue missions expected to focus in part on Laplace.

U.S. Coast GuardThe air crew at Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans, in Belle Chasse, that launched during Hurricane Isaac Wednesday poses with the couple they rescued from their flooded home in Laplace.

An air crew from Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans, in Belle Chasse, flew what appeared to be the first hoist rescue of the storm on Wednesday, when the aviators lifted a couple and their dogs from their home in Laplace, the Coast Guard said over night.

"The husband and wife and their two dogs were in an area where a lot of houses washed away," pilot Lt. Cmdr. Jorge Porto said in a Coast Guard news release. "They used a flashlight inside the house as a signaling device, which made all the difference in locating them effectively."

The Coast Guard identified the couple as Loisa and Greg Knight. They were flown to the Coast Guard air station and were not injured.

The National Guard, meanwhile, had four UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters assigned to search and rescue missions, according to the Guard. Copters were launching from the National Guard's Army Aviation Facility, at the Hammond Northshore Regional Airport.

Soldiers said Black Hawks would be sent to the Laplace area as well, while one was seen this morning flying to Plaquemines Parish's east bank, where scores of residents were trapped in their homes by the tidal surge that topped the locally owned back levee.